Node Access

ssh

sind ssh [SSH_OPTIONS] NODE [-- COMMAND [ARGS...]]

SSH into a specific node. All SSH options and arguments are passed through to the underlying SSH command.

# Interactive shell
sind ssh controller
sind ssh worker-0.dev

# Run a command
sind ssh worker-0 -- hostname
sind ssh -t worker-0 -- top

# Verbose SSH
sind ssh -v worker-0

# Port forwarding
sind ssh -L 8080:localhost:80 controller

Internally, sind ssh executes SSH via the mesh SSH container:

docker exec -it sind-ssh ssh <node>.<realm>.sind

Shell completion is available for both sind ssh and sind exec — press Tab to complete node and cluster names.

enter

sind enter [CLUSTER]

Opens an interactive shell on the cluster’s submitter node. If no submitter is configured, it connects to the controller instead. The working directory inside the container is /data.

sind enter          # default cluster
sind enter dev      # dev cluster

exec

sind exec [CLUSTER] -- COMMAND [ARGS...]

Runs a one-shot command on the submitter (or controller). The -- separator is required. The working directory inside the container is /data.

sind exec -- sinfo
sind exec -- srun hostname
sind exec dev -- sbatch job.sh

Data mount

By default, sind create cluster bind-mounts the current working directory into all containers at /data. Both sind enter and sind exec set /data as the working directory, so files from the host are immediately accessible.

Use the --data flag to change this behavior:

Flag value	Behavior
`--data .` (default)	Bind-mount CWD as `/data`
`--data /path/to/dir`	Bind-mount the given directory as `/data`
`--data volume`	Use a Docker-managed volume instead of a host mount

# Mount a specific directory
sind create cluster --data /home/user/shared

# Use a Docker volume instead
sind create cluster --data volume

Note

sind ssh connects via SSH and starts in the user’s home directory, not /data. The data mount is still accessible — just cd /data. Use sind enter or sind exec to land in /data directly.

Command routing

Command	Target node
`sind ssh <node>`	Explicit node
`sind enter [cluster]`	Submitter if exists, otherwise controller
`sind exec [cluster]`	Submitter if exists, otherwise controller

User SSH client integration

sind automatically exports SSH configuration per realm to $XDG_STATE_HOME/sind/<realm>/ (defaulting to ~/.local/state/sind/<realm>/):

File	Description
`ssh_config`	SSH config snippet
`id_ed25519`	Private key
`known_hosts`	Host keys

These files are updated on every create/delete operation and removed when the last cluster in a realm is deleted.

To find the path for your current realm:

sind get ssh-config

Add to the top of your ~/.ssh/config (before any Host or Match blocks) for a single realm:

Include ~/.local/state/sind/sind/ssh_config

Or include all realms at once using a wildcard:

Include ~/.local/state/sind/*/ssh_config

The generated SSH config includes CanonicalizeHostname directives that expand short names automatically:

ssh controller                        # → controller.default.sind.sind
ssh controller.dev                    # → controller.dev.sind.sind
ssh controller.default.sind.sind      # full FQDN
scp file.txt worker-0.dev.sind.sind:/tmp/

Note

Short-name canonicalization (ssh controller, ssh controller.dev) requires the Include line to appear before any Host or Match blocks in your ~/.ssh/config. OpenSSH processes CanonicalizeHostname directives in order — if a Host * block appears first, canonicalization is skipped.